Wednesday, September 30, 2009

As the oral secretion, saliva tends to stay in our mouths. As the hard-rock band, Saliva has been in spots for World Wrestling Entertainment, the movie The Fast & the Furious, the theme to Nascar 2005: The Chase for the Cup, commercials for Dog the Bounty Hunter, the Japanese manga episode Dragon Ball Z: Bardock—The Father of Goku, as the highlight video soundtrack for the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Blue Jays, the video games BMX XXX, Project Gotham Racing, Test Drive Overdrive, UFC 2009 Undisputed, MX 2002 featuring Ricky Carmichael, and occasionally, on the Billboard charts. Sometimes, they even play concerts, and if they haven’t infiltrated your personal space quite enough just yet, Saliva appear live on Tuesday, Oct. 6, at the Last Day Saloon. 120 Fifth St., Santa Rosa. 8:30pm. $18-$20. 707.545.2343.Gabe Meline

If you’re simply too car-challenged, energy-deprived or claustrophobic to attend the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park this weekend, there’s at least the comfort of knowing that star headliner Emmylou Harris always visits Santa Rosa as part of her annual West Coast jaunt. Harris’ recent foray into songwriting has served the always-an-interpreter-never-a-songwriter well, and possessed of silken hair and a voice from the heavens, Harris at age 62 still has the power to render breathless even the most callous listeners. Hope for “The Pearl” when she plays with Buddy Miller on Sunday, Oct. 6, at the Wells Fargo Center. 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa. 8pm. $30-$70. 707.546.3600.Gabe Meline

Every year, the Maison Dupuy Hotel on Toulouse and Burgundy streets in New Orleans hosts the French Quarter Wine Festival, in which residents of New Orleans celebrate wines from throughout the Napa Valley. Little do they know that across the country, residents of the Napa Valley get together annually to celebrate the food and music of New Orleans. It’s the Wine Country Cajun Food & Music Festival, and it takes over downtown Napa with music by Gator Beat, the Zydeco Flames, Henry Clement, Chief Takawaka & Gumbo Band, the Fred Pepper Dixieland Trio and more. Gumbo, jambalaya and other Louisiana staples will be washed down with beer, beer and more beer, and yes—there’ll even be someone throwing beads from the parade float on Saturday, Oct. 3, in downtown Napa. First & Main, Napa. 1-6pm. Free. 707.257.0322.Gabe Meline

I thought that Billy Joe Shaver had finally settled down. Here was a man who’d cut off two fingers in a lumber mill accident, had lost his son to a heroin overdose, who’d had a heart attack—you’d think someone was trying to tell him to let his old, rowdy ways fall away. But there’s a relentless spirit inside of Shaver; the same spirit that led him to define the “outlaw country” movement by penning songs for Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash. The same spirit that led him to write the incredible album Honky Tonk Heroes. The same spirit, unfortunately, that led him into a 2007 dispute outside Papa Joe’s Texas Saloon in Lorena, Tex., which ended by shooting a man in the face. Both lived to tell the tale—one in court, and Billy Joe Shaver, outlaw extraordinaire, on Friday, Oct. 2, at the Rancho Nicasio. Town Square, Nicasio. 8:30pm. $25. 415.662.2219.Gabe Meline

Thursday, September 24, 2009

It’s not just a movie. It’s a way of life. Am I wrong? The Big Lebowski, which screens this week in the small confines of the Cameo Cinema, is fast joining the Rocky Horror Picture Show and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls as a lifestyle bible for its most devoted, white-Russian-drinking followers, and the one-screen movie theater may never be the same. As the official Lebowski Fest makes its way across the country this September, Napa Valley duderinos have the chance to abide en masse and recite classic lines together back at the screen, and there are oh-so-many of them. Will bowling balls be rolled down the aisles with nihilists? Will someone have the guts to stand outside the theater with a ghetto blaster, playing the Eagles? Will anyone ever really find a rug that really ties a room together? Find out when the cult favorite screens on Wednesday, Sept. 30, at Cameo Cinema. 1340 Main St., St. Helena. 8pm. $5. 707.963.9779.Gabe Meline

Amusing the amnesiac drunks of the world while they slobber Stouffer’s dinners on themselves in the middle of the night isn’t anyone’s idea of a great job. But to Craig Ferguson, it caps a long journey from a young punk rocker in Glasgow, Scotland, to construction worker to bouncer to modern dancer, and finally, to taking the place of Craig Kilborn as host of CBS’ Late Late Show. Ferguson’s new memoir, American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot, chronicles that journey, with a lot of alcohol and cocaine along the way, but what emerges from the haze is a humble, funny man who very desperately wanted to become an American. He achieved citizenship in 2008, and wears a red, white and blue kilt on the cover of his books and, one would guess, whenever else he can. He appears on Saturday, Sept. 26, at Book Passage. 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. Noon. Free. 415.927.0960.Gabe Meline

At age 79, Stephen Sondheim has seen it all, from commercial successes like Sweeny Todd to underappreciated flops like Anyone Can Whistle. He’s been in Hollywood, on Broadway, off Broadway, studied under Oscar Hammerstein, collaborated with Richard Rodgers, served as president of the Director’s Guild, raked in royalties for “Send in the Clowns,” and now, at the end of it all, he rests. And talks. If Sondheim had only written the lyrics to West Side Story, he’d be a household name, but consider Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Into the Woods, A Little Night Music and the brilliant Assassins, and it all adds up. He is, without a doubt, a Broadway legend, and he appears in a conversation with acclaimed director Peter Stein to display his verbal genius and discuss a distinguished career on Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Wells Fargo Center. 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa. 8pm. $49–$69. 707.546.3600.Gabe Meline

What do you say if you’re an artist used to playing large places like the Fox Theater in Boulder, the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn or the El Rey theater in Los Angeles when a Santa Rosa radio station asks if you want to play a free show on a one-foot high stage at a downtown brewpub? If you’re Mason Jennings, you say yes. The Minnesota songwriter has just released his seventh album, Blood of Man, and in describing it, he writes, “I wrote about how hard it is to be 34 and be a parent and sane and married and true and positive and yourself and a man and funny and a decent person and a not decent person and human and in love.” His appearance continues a tradition of KRSH 95.9-FM bringing artists from Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records roster to town for free concerts, and it all goes down on Wednesday, Sept. 23, at the Russian River Brewing Company. 725 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. Noon. 707.545.2337.Gabe Meline

In no other city but Oakland would the big-pants-wearin’ has-been be booked at such a large, beautiful theater. With Whodini opening. Sep 25 at 8. $46-$66. Fox Theater, 1807 Telegraph Ave, Oakland. 510.548.3010.Sondre Lerche

Soaring original songwriter born in Norway and taking the States by storm with his new album “Heartbeat Radio.” Sep 27 at 8. $21. Great American Music Hall, 859 O’Farrell St, San Francisco. 888.233.0449.Rain Machine

One more reason to love this man: he speaks on “Bike Advocacy and the Urban Environment” at City Arts & Lectures. Sep 29 at 8. $20. Herbst Theatre, 201 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco. 415.392.4400.Ida Maria

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

I’ll reveal a little-known secret for all you new parents out there. Trying to keep your toddler occupied? Looking for a way to stop the screaming? The solution, whispered about among formerly frazzled parents in the know, is Buckwheat Zydeco. All you’ve gotta do is hook up the Johnny Jump-Up, throw on Buckwheat’s Zydeco Party, and hours will pass blissfully as the kid goes crazy to the lively, rhythmic music. Buckwheat Zydeco is part of a rare group of accordion players with Grammy nominations, and he brought the classic Cajun sound to a wider audience than ever during the 1980s. Now 61, his latest album, Lay Your Burden Down, shows he’s still got it. Leave the screaming children with the babysitter when he appears on Saturday, Sept. 12, at the Lincoln Theater (100 California Drive, Yountville; 8pm; $25–$35; 707.944.1300) and on Sunday, Sept. 13, at Rancho Nicasio (Town Square, Nicasio; 4pm; $20; 415.662.2219).Gabe Meline